Declan Rice voiced his notable anger towards referee Jesus Gil Manzano on Thursday night, following West Ham United's 1-0 Europa League semi-final second leg defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Hammers’ European journey came to an end in Germany as Frankfurt backed up their 2-1 first-leg victory in London with another win against David Moyes ’s side on Thursday evening. West Ham weren’t helped in the first half when Aaron Cresswell was shown a red card by Manzano after hauling down Jens Petter Hauge as the last defender.
The hosts didn’t take the advantage from the subsequent free-kick on the edge of the box but did go ahead a few moments later as Rafael Santos Borre converted from close range after being found open in the area by Ansgar Knauff.
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Manzano brandished a total of nine cards to players in the game and another red card to Hammers manager Moyes following a show of frustration from the Scotsman on the bench. It's fair to say that many of the so called '50/50' challenges went against West Ham, something which obviously angered Rice, who in his moment of anguish, used some very choice words towards Manzano.
As seen on a video that's surfaced on social media, the Englishman said as he walked down the tunnel: "Ref, ref, it's so poor. All night, it's so bad. How can you be that bad? Honestly, you've probably been ******* paid. It's ******* corruption."
Although he'd cooled off a tad after the game, he still criticised the referee's performance as he said live on BT Sport: "The sending off was probably a sending off looking back at it. But some of the other decisions were poor tonight, none seemed to go for us. The referee seemed to make every decision go for them. In the end, when you’ve got someone who is against you, you can’t really do much."
Rice was also unsure, despite defeat in both legs, if Frankfurt were as good as a side as they appeared, suggesting that their opponents in the last-16 (Sevilla) and quarter-finals (Lyon) were tougher to navigate past. Instead, it was conceding early in the first leg at the London Stadium and being reduced to ten men early in the second leg that killed the Hammers' chances.
“A sending off is always going to make it a mountain to climb,” he added. “We had a genuine belief that over two legs they weren’t going to beat us. Of course, they’re a good side but no way are they better than what Sevilla and Lyon were.” He added: “Looking back over the two legs, probably the first leg it was the first goal that killed us and it’s always a mountain to climb from there.”
